How do I get my site ranked higher on Google? What should I focus on when looking for backlink opportunities? How much time does it take to rank a page?
These questions are common among newbie web admins.
Google is the largest search engine in the world. If you want to rank high in its SERPs (search engine result pages), you need to optimise your website for organic traffic.
There are ways to increase your ranking on Google, e.g. content marketing, social media optimisation and link building.
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Content Marketing
Content marketing is a great way to get your name out there. You can create a helpful, informative, and exciting piece of content for your target audience. This type of marketing is like a conversation between you and your customers. By creating content regularly, you build trust while establishing yourself as an expert in your field.
Social Media Optimization
Social media is another excellent way to connect with your customers. Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram, Pinterest, and YouTube – are just some of the many social platforms where you can share information about your business and what you’re offering.
Learn these strategies and improve your search engine optimization strategy. Next, we’ll focus on link building and how you can use it to boost your rankings.
So, you’ve polished off all your on-page SEO, and now it’s time to build some inbound links. Or maybe you’ve just heard about link building and need to learn more.
Well, luckily for you, you’ve come to the right place.
This article will explain any questions and introduce you to some of the best link-building strategies.
Sound good? Great, let’s get started:
Why Is Link Building Important for Your Business?
Before getting into why your business needs to start a link building campaign, let’s first consider what link building is.
Building links is a process of getting another relevant website to place an external link, naturally within their content (e.g. blog post, guest post, etc.), that points to your page.
The more quality links you have to point to your business’s website, the easier it is to increase your rankings. But why does this work?
The simple way to think about links is by thinking of them as a vote of approval for your business. The more websites that vote (add your link), the more Google deems your content worthy of the top positions.
Google has been using links as a ranking signal since 1998, but the system was flawed.
Building links is a process of getting another relevant website to place a link, naturally within their content, that points to your page. Click To TweetGoogle only judged the number of links a business had, not the quality of the links. This practice led to a massive problem of business owners and shady SEOs spamming thousands of backlinks and target keywords.
Since then, things have transformed; now, Google judges the links on quality over quantity. This practice helped clean up the internet and make website owners think carefully about how they build their links.
With that said, you need to work towards building as many high-quality links as you can if you want the chance to rank your site.
What to Look for When Building Backlinks
Now that you understand what link building is and how it works, it’s time to learn what to watch for when building backlinks for your online business.
As mentioned earlier, all backlinks are not judged equally, so what makes the perfect backlink?
There are four factors to consider when building a quality backlink. Let’s take a look:
- The Strength of the Domain – A strong domain is one key to building quality backlinks. You’re looking to get links from a well-known website with high domain authority.
- The Strength of the Page – It’s not just the domain’s strength you need to consider; it’s also the page. You’re looking for pages that gain a fair amount of organic traffic.
- The Relevance of the Page – You need the page closely related to your subject matter on the other end of the link. It is essential, and Google pays close attention to this factor. As mentioned above, the days of spammy links have passed.
- The Anchor Text Used – The anchor text is the word used to link to your page. You need to ensure you use a variety of anchor texts, but for optimum results, you can use a backlink checker tool to spy on your competitors and see what combination types of anchor text won them the top spots. Then replicate it.
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Your links should include these factors where possible. If they don’t, your link will hold a lower SEO value. That’s not to say it is terrible to have a mix of low, medium, and high-quality links, as this builds a natural-looking link profile. But you are more likely to naturally pick up the lower quality backlink link opportunities.
Link Building Strategies That Boost Your Online Business
Now you understand more about links and what they must comprise, it’s a good time to introduce you to some top link building strategies.
Below are some highly actionable link building opportunities you can use to help boost your online business:
Testimonial Link Building
If you are looking for a quick, easy backlink strategy to get started with, look no further. This strategy takes no time and will score you a powerful link.
You’re probably questioning how this fantastic strategy works. Well, fear not, I will explain all soon.
The idea is to contact the products/services you’ve used for your website and see if they would like a testimonial.
Top tip: it helps if the product is related to your niche and you’ve used it before.
Here’s a step-by-step guide on how to score your testimonial links:
Think of Products/Services You’ve Used.
The first step is to find places you can score a testimonial link. The best way of doing this is by looking for products/services you’ve used that have:
- A website
- A testimonials section
- Relevant to your niche
- You must have used it (even if it was a free trial)
Any product or service you can think of that fits the above is worth noting and investigating for valuable backlinks. If you can’t think of many, try Googling to see what other people in your niche are writing.
Contact the Right People
Again, this is another straightforward step. Can you see a pattern emerging?
You can reach out to them in one of two ways, using the contact form on the website, or you can use dedicated tools for the job.
The best tools for this are:
For every contact you find, reach out to them, offering your testimonial. Be sure to introduce yourself and show the value their tool provided you.
If they get back to you and like your idea, it’s time for the next step:
Write Your Testimonial
Again, it would help if you didn’t have any trouble with this part. It would help if you made a short write up about what you like most about the service and how it helped you.
Honestly, it’s super easy and shouldn’t take more than 15 minutes. Once completed, send it over and enjoy the power of the link.
Reverse Engineering Your Competitor’s Best Backlinks
This is another highly effective technique called ‘stealing backlinks’. It’s probably the best method out there used among SEO experts.
It takes some time, but it’s worth it!
The idea is to steal your competitor’s backlink profile and use it to compete or beat them.
Why do this?
Because your competitors already have a backlink profile that Google deems worthy of the top spot. It’s just common sense to use it to your advantage, and here’s why:
Your competitors will have spent considerable money and many working hours building and developing their profile.
And now you can come along and replicate it with very little expense.
Here’s how it works:
Find out Whom You’re Competing With
The first step is to find out whom you’re competing with for a specific keyword. You might know who they are already, but finding out is simple if you don’t know.
They are the top websites in the search results for each keyword of the pages you wish to rank.
Make a list of them ready for the next step:
Find All Their Backlinks.
So, you know who you’re competing against; now it’s time to find their backlinks. This process is pretty simple, but to get the best results, you’ll need a paid SEO tool like:
- Ahrefs
- SEMrush
- SEO Powersuite
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The best backlink analysis tool for this task is Ahrefs because of the extensive index of backlinks they provide. To find your competitor’s backlinks, follow these quick steps:
1. Search for your competitor’s URL in Ahrefs’ site explorer.
2. Hit the backlinks button on the left-hand side of the screen
Ahrefs will then provide you with a list of all the backlinks and any broken links pointing to their page. Export the list, do this for each of your competitors.
It’s your job to go through each one on the list and ask yourself these questions:
- Does it hold value?
- Is it relevant?
- What did they do to get the link?
Delete any competitor backlink that doesn’t cut it from the list. It’s pretty time-consuming but highly worth it in the long run.
You should be left with a massive list of potential linking opportunities that you know work. Why do you know they work? Because your competitors are using them; and look where they are in the rankings
Now, it’s a case of reaching out to each one. You can find the emails in the same way as the previous strategy. Make sure your pitch is unique; imagine how many generic emails website owners get.
Remember, each link pointing to your site acts as a vote of approval, and the more quality links you have, the better your website will perform. Click To TweetIf you look like any other generic template, there’s a good chance you’re going to end up in the trash bin or, even worse, placed in spam.
If you don’t get a reply the first time, don’t feel disheartened. Sometimes their mailboxes fill up. Try a few more times.
The number of replies you get from follow-ups will surprise you.
Rounding Up
These are the few ways to create a strong backlink profile and boost your search engine ranking. But if you want more strategies, click here.
Building links plays a significant part in your success, and as a business owner, it’s your job to get yourself to the top of the search rankings.
Remember, each link pointing to your site acts as a vote of approval, and the more quality links you have, the better your website will perform.
And finally, don’t forget the four pillars to a healthy backlink:
- Relevancy
- Page strength
- Domain strength
- Anchor Text
If you keep all this in mind, you’ll have no trouble pushing your pages to exactly where they deserve!
In conclusion, link building is a powerful tool for driving traffic and increasing conversions, essential for every business owner.
Related Article(s)
- How to Find Your Competitor’s Backlinks
- PPC or SEO – Which Do You Need?
- SEO for Small Business Websites
- Content Marketing Tactics to Increase Your Audience Engagement
- What Are the Types of Digital Marketing?
- The Best Advice about Content Marketing You Have Ever Heard
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